ALBANY — Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn, said he was confident he could still be effective for his constituents despite being stripped of his committee chairmanship and other perks — not to mention the large shadow cast by two investigations into sexual misconduct charges against him and the Assembly's decision to reach a confidential settlement with two of his accusers.

That fast-breaking scandal flared up in late August and swiftly swamped Speaker Sheldon Silver as well as the offices of the state comptroller and attorney general, which had been consulted on early drafts of the $135,000 settlement, which was finalized in June. Two months later, Lopez was disciplined by Silver for allegedly groping young female staffers and other inappropriate behavior.

"I won my district after a huge barrage of attacks — on allegations," Lopez told reporters during a recess in the Assembly's first day of regular session. "I got over 90 percent, over 30,000 people voted, and I have a strong mandate to come here and represent the district. ... What, would you like no one to represent them and me to resign, is that what you would like?"

Lopez said he hadn't been questioned by either the Joint Commission on Public Ethics or Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan, acting as a special prosecutor after Brooklyn's district attorney recused himself from the case due to his political ties to Lopez. "My attorneys have communicated, I guess, with both of them, but maybe with one of them. And that's an ongoing dialogue," the lawmaker said. "I'm not a lawyer; I'll do what my lawyers recommend. ... My intention is to be cooperative."

He shrugged off the loss of staff and his exile to a smaller office. "When I came here, I came with a worker and a half. ... I have an office, it's smaller but it's pretty nice," Lopez said. "My license plate number has gone from 20 to 137 — I guess that's a setback, but that was never my issue."

Lopez, 71, said his absence from the Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State last week was due to an appointment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The assemblyman, who has battled cancer in the past, didn't want to talk about his current problems on the record except to say they were serious. "This trip (to Albany) gets longer, even though it's the same miles," he said.